president. they did treat him right at the airport and then rushed him over to metro health hospital, which is just a few minutes away from the cleveland airport. we don't know exactly yet what the illness is. but ali, he is there at the hospital right now. >> he's days away from his 86th birthday? >> on friday. he's 85 right now. the 39th president served from 1977 through 1981. >> all right. let's talk about jimmy carter. he's generally thought to be in very good health. he has been traveling around the world. he was in north korea, south korea rescuing somebody who had been in north korea recently. he keeps a very, very busy schedule. >> yes. very active. he is very engaged on the diplomatic front. >> right. >> reporter: whether or not the white house likes it, and sometimes they have not. he also, of course, has been very, very involved in writing, and this latest book "white house diaries" based upon some of the diaries he actually took

while he was in the white house. so he's put out many books. this is the latest, and, yes, a very rigorous schedule for somebody who is 85 years old. just about to turn 86. >> all right. at this metro health center a major regional trauma hospital? >> reporter: obviously not the hop we've all heard of. there are so many very famous hospitals in cleveland. the cleveland clinic, for example, but this is the one right near the airport. they wanted to get him to the hospital as quickly as poll. obviously, it must be something fairly serious. >> what do we know so far? what we don't know just yet, his condition. why he's there, and in what shape he's in in the the moment. we do know he was flying in commercially. >> reporter: yes, on a commercial flight. absolutely. did have secret service with him, as former presidents always do have when they do leave their homes. >> right. >> reporter: other than that, we just know that he is in the hospital right now, and

hopefully before long we'll know exactly what the problem is. >> all right. and -- we are trying to determine what president carter is suffering from. we just know that he became ill on the flight. any details about what? >> reporter: no, we don't have any detail os to that yet. >> we're going to continue to follow this story, and i'm going to take a break, or we're going to go on to the next story. just let me know which we're doing at the moment. all right. we are also -- all right. we are going to take a break for a second. i will bring you back with more information on president carter. stay with us. cnn is going to continue in a second. i want to give my 5 employees health insurance,

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no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

bricking you -- bringing you up to speed. tape of jimmy carter arriving at the metro health center in cleveland, ohio, after taking a plane there for a book signing apparently on a commercial flight reported to be ill on that flight. we are unclear as to what he was suffering from or what his condition is. he was taken to metro health, which is a major trauma center in cleveland, but we do not know what his condition was. you can seie, those are the vehicles that carried limb to the hospital. he is there at the mope. we're waiting for an update, working with our teams to find out exactly what president carter is suffering from. he's a few days shy of his 86 rnlg birthday. he has kept up a fairly rigorous public and travel schedule recently. as i say, he was here for a book signing. recently he's come back from

north korea, as you know, to bring an american back who was there. very, very active schedule. we do not have information as to why he was there, but he was reported to be ill from this flight. this incoming flight to cleveland, and then transported immediately to a hospital. we are staying on top of that story, and we will bring you the latest as we have it. now, in other breaking news, we've been following all day. an investigation under way at the university of texas in austin after a gun ma opened fire with an ak-47 this morning. no reports of anybody hit or wounded. the unidentified shooter was found dead inside a library building. he apparently took his own life. police had been searching for a possible second suspect. now they have given the all-clear at the university of texas, austin in respect will be a press conference on the shooting in about ten minutes. we'll briv it to you live as well. that's not it. we are very near the ninth anniversary of the war in

afghanistan. a war aimed at toppling the taliban regime and posing a future threat. which. has not done. at the moment, troops are fighting and dying to keep the taliban at bay with no end in sight. only goals for future drawdowns of the troops. look at this map. afghanistan, you may know as a country, but it is a patchwork of areas controlled at least on paper by troops from various countries. now we get word from kabul of a high peace council. their words. assembled by the afghan government apparently with the blessing of the united states. village elders, former warlords, 70age ganns in all including ten women called to begin and i quote "serious substantive dialogue with the armed opposition." the armed opposition is the taliban. no less the senior u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus on the

record saying high-level contacts are already well underway but afghan leaders insist the process is at best in its infancy. so that you understand this. this means that the afghan government with the support of the united states is admitting that they are negotiating with the taliban for some kind of peace. what will this mean for the future of afghanistan? what will this mean for the future of human rights in afghanistan and the future of women in afghanistan? there are ten women on this peace council. what do they have to trade away to the taliban for peace after this long, long war? ivan watson, in the afghan capital of kabul. ivan what do you know about this council, this high-peace council, the state of the negotiations and the remarkable idea that the taliban which has really got to be one of the worst regimes this world has ever seen. one of the worst practitioners of human rights violations, could be actually negotiating for a role in the future of afghanistan? ivan? >> reporter: well, it's

important to note, ali, that, yes, this war is now approaching its tenth year, but the afghan government here, which is backed by western governments and western military harks had a "reconciliation department" since 2005 aimed at trying to woo taliban commanders and fighters over to the side of the government. trying to convince them to put down arms. this high peace council is almost a revamping of the process stutters and sputtering and failing to try to convince taliban lead toers try to leave the movement. now, this attracted a lot of attention when as you said, general david petraeus, the leader of the u.s. military commander here said there were high-level contacts the taliban was reaching out to the afghan government. i've spoken -- we've spoken with afghan representatives and they're trying to downplay that saying that negotiations, formal negotiations have not yet started. take a listen to what the president's spokesman had to say, ali. >> there is no substantive

negotiations or substantive discussions or dialogue with the armed opposition and we hope that by after the establishment of the peace council, which was established today, we will enter into a serious sub starvetive dialogue with the armed opposition. >> reporter: ali irs think if you ask most afghans they ncede some kind of settlement will need to be reached. just this morning another suicide car bombing to the south the afghan capital killed a deputy governor and five our people. wounded at least six. people here are exhausted from this conflict, and recognize that the military option is not the final solution. ali? >> let me ask you think, though, ivan. you know the situation better that most. this has been a situation that has been going on. afghans have not lived with peace in a very, very long time. and as frustrating as it must be

to have parts of the country controlled by taliban and parts control by various other countries or the afghan government, the reality is, even without the taliban running the show, there are remarkable human rights violations in afghanistan. there are still -- there's still a great deal of suffering, still a great deal of lack of education, still a great deal of lack of advancement for women. what -- does this not frighten afghans that the taliban could come back in and have that sort of sway over their lives? >> reporter: i think there's a lot of fear and unease, that i sense here in the afghan capital, ali. when there are kind of mixed messages coming out of washington as to how long the u.s. military's going to maintain its current troop presence here about the future. when there is talk of possible negotiations down the road with the taliban. some people very nervous. which side should they line up with in the future? now, the interesting thing is, the afghan president, hamid

karzai coming out for years trying to woo taliban commanders over. calling them his brothers saying put down your arms if you are afghans, muslims, stop shooting at your fellow people. interesting scene here today, al pip he was speaking in what was supposed to be a celebration of educational achievement here in afghanistan. international literacy day and instead he broke into tears onstage. take a look at this performance by the afghan president. >> translator: i have pain in my heart. please understand me. [ applause ] i'm afraid, my countrymen, please understand me. i'm afraid my son, my own son, would become a refugee one day.

please, i don't want my son and your son to be a foreign citizen. i want him to grow up here, and i want him to go to school here. i want him to be taught by an afghan teacher. >> reporter: interesting thing, ali, is, hamid karzai's credibility, his government's credibility, at an all-time low here and yet informally chatting with afghans just at dinner just now, educated afghans saying i'm not a hamid karzai performer but was profoundly touched by his expression of exhaustion and fear of where this country is headed right now. >> ivan, let me ask you one thing. the two frustrations the average afghan is dealing with is the fear of islamic fundamentalism and the affect on their lives, and what corruption is doing to their lives. give me some sense of how these two things weigh on afghans.

>> reporter: it's a difficult question. the insecurity, it's all over the place. i mentioned, this suicide bombing this morning in a province not very far from the afghan capital. the daily corruption that afghans see. the biggest bank, private bank in the country, last month, a run on the bank. i'm hearing from ordinary afghans in town they're having to move their savings or try to get them out, and hamid karzai's brother is a major shareholder in that bank. seems it gotten unsavory loans and deals due to his connections in the past. he's even being investigated right now, according to the "new york times," by federal prosecutors in new york. so afghans face a government that's propped up by the west that has very little legitimate legitimacy. they don't necessarily like the taliban. they feel very much caught in the middle between taliban militants a corrupt western-backed government and

more than 100,000 foreign troops that are more offer than not afghans get caught in the middle of these battles which are escalating across this country. the violence spirming, apparently, out of control here. ali? >> a complex and ongoing problem. ivan, thanks very much for being with pups always a pleasure to see you. ivan watson in kabul. we're covering a few pieces of breaking news. jimmy carter in a hospital in cleveland. he was rushed there after a flight to cleveland. he's at a trauma center. we don't know what he's suffering from. we are looking for an update and will bring it to you the minute we get it. also, at the university of texas, austin a shooting this morning. a gunman ent ared a library apparently no one hit. he was found dead in the library. police looking for a second gunman. they've issued and all-clear. no second gunman. all-clear at the university of austin. in a few minutes, a press conference there. interesting story that caught our attention. many americans if not most view

themselves as religious. if they're faith is so strong where do they stand when it comes to the knowledge of their relation and other people's religions? results of a new poll may surprise you in a big way. i'm going to bring yous numbers after this. we got it. thank you very much! check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. onstar. live on.

remember that great sam cooke song "wonderful world," don't know much about history? with all due respect today you and i could add, don't know much about religion either. the bottom line of a new pew form poll of religion an public life. many if not most americans profess to be religious.

when it comes to facts about religion they come up short. of the more than 3,400 people questioned by phone, the average number of correct answers out of 32 questions was 16. there it in lies one of the most interesting if not surprising findings of the poll, atheists agnostics scored highest. not so hard to believe. mormons and evangelical prof aa protestants. this next graphic shows how the various groups did in the survey. the average number of correct answers out of 32 questions. you can see there atheists and agnostics 26.9. jews 20.5. and rounding out the bottom of the list, you can see, hispanic catholics black protestants and people who said they follow no religion in particular. another aspect of this poll,

researchers emphasize a number of factors contribute to a person's religious knowledge. here are some of them. education. the higher the level of education the more one was likely to know on this question. on these questions. also, those who attended private schools tended to add at least a couple of questions more correctly than those who attended public schools. however, attending a private religious school didn't give you any edge over attending a private secular school. those who read scripture once a week and talk about it with others tend to have more religious knowledge. same for those who attend a religious service at least one a week and those who took part in a youth program or something like a sunday school. i want to discuss more about these details in my xyz in the next hour. food for thought. it may be a sign of a good pluralistic diverse society that we don't all know about each other' religions that we should. doesn't mean we can't change. and bad news, food prices,

and i'll talk to kristine when we come back. it is the promise that compels us to make the journey from wonder to discovery. the science of chemistry, our guide. the human element, our conscience. and to make this journey, we have become the new order of hunters and gatherers. finding answers in the elements. and a way forward illuminated by hope.

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. all right. we've just got a statement from the carter center about president carter's condition. let me read it to you. statement from the carter center -- while on a flight to cleveland former u.s. president jimmy carter developed an yun set stomach. upon arrival taken to the hospital for observation. she resting comfortably and expected to resume this book tour this week. so according to that, he is in no great danger. good news. president carter -- not good news he an upset stomach, doesn't look like life threatening. she a remarkably robust man,

just short of his 86th birthday but remains active, travel as great deal. makes public appearances. so that's good. we'll keep you posted if we get any further detail on exactly what president carter was suffering suffer ing from that took him to the hospital in the first place. looked like a glimmer's home. home prices rising. that growth slowed. not to mention new home sales are still near historic lows. christine romans joins me now. great to see you, as always. first of all, new home sales are and have always been a very small portion of home sales. probably 15% before the recession. now it's about 8% or 9%. that's okay. while we're recovering, not great for the economy but to be expected. home prices have been edging up a little? >> they have. edging up very depressed levels. when you look at the headline, from the s&p home price report today it says, ali, home prices remain stable around recent lows. whew! you know, stable around recent lows is something that a lot of people have been hoping for

after the past couple of year. economists tell us they don't expect to go back to the 2005 lofty levels against. stability they can lope for and hope it continues here for the foreseeable future. >> you decided your house isn't your piggy bank. it's a place to live and could be a good investment over time. that's okay. we don't need them to do what they were doing in the early -- t. was fake. a mirage. >> some think price, not where they should be? some believe too high and held up by very low interest rates. >> you're right. i argue stability is good for the housing market. you want people stable in their home if they get a job offer across the country they feel comfortable enough to take it. they don't have the crushing burden of being stuck in a house they can't afford. >> american moectd, you and i talk about so much and one of greatest things of this capitalist system stymied by your ability to sell your house because you owe more that it's worth. >> housing can't rover until people guess jobs, jobs don't recover until the housing

market, everyone feeling more confident. >> all depends on consumers feeling good and buying gives p. consumer are less confident than we sought? >> a lot of those less confident. the number 50 for the consumer confidence reports. the number 50 means you're actually expanding in the economy and 90 gang busters good solid economy creating jobs. we're way down in the 40s. less than economists thought. consumer confidence a problem today. the question, do people say i'm not confident and turned around and buy with money in their pocket? a lot of reasons to say people don't feel good. >> some positive things going on in the ep environment. we're waiting for it to kick in and the consumer feel more safe. you said yesterday you cannot pass a bill that buys consumer confidence thtsz and cannot flip a switch and have consumer confidence or confidence kuk bp. that's what they're trying to do.

pass small business tax cuts. do all of these thing, extension of jobless benefits. a lot of different things to make people and businesses feel more confident, but we don't know what the magic bullet is. one thing, four cities on this list. if you live there, home prices, you have seen a one-year gain in home prices. 11.2% gain in san francisco. san diego, you've seen your home prices up 9% over the past you're from july 2009. granted, july 2009 was a dark day. wasn't it? but l.a., washington -- >> washington? >> washington. census numbers show washington people, people who work in washington make more money than anybody else in the country. $85,000 a year. would you say the center of gravity in the american economy in washington moved away from main street and new york city and wall street to washington? i would say so. >> lots to talk about every day this week and on weekends. if you want to hear mother, watch "your $$$$$" saturdays and sundays. coming up, following a rapidly growing disaster in southern mexico up to 1,000 people could be trapped under a muddy

landslide. weep scope it out. stay with us.

an urgent rescue effort going on right now in southern mexico after a massive overnight landslide buried hundreds of homes in oaxaca state. authorities fear up to 1,000 people may be trapped. rescuers and heavy machinery on way. flooding and previous landslides in the area may be blocking many roads. bring in chad myers to scope occupy the terrain. what's it look like. >> oaxaca, the southern most state in mexico, santa maria, a very rugged area from the way to, let's say, oaxaca, down to keft con deceit oh and the dirt here. not a very solid piece of land

mass. so when it rains like it has rained, because of what was matthew. there you go. tropical depression matthew. what we're talking about. where the rain has been so very heavy. raining still today. maybe another inch or two. they can't get to some of the spots because of the mud spots. along the roads, smaller slides that didn't bury anyone. they're fearing in this landslide. this is oaxaca, there could be 1,000 people still to be found here before it's all done. one more thing i want to get you before we get to the next hour, clearly we'll get to this in the 2:00 hour. a new tropical storm warning issued for south florida. that's west palm, ft. lauderdale, all the keys, for a storm that doesn't even have a name yet, but it will be nicole tonight. it will be gone tomorrow night. a quick mover. those are dangerous. they can gather strength rather quickly. we'll keep watching. >> what's going on up in my neck ever the woods? i'm here in atlanta. we had hurricane -- tornado

watches for philadelphia, for new york, places like that. >> still there. i don't see anything that's rotating. no severe thunderstorms, but i know you know, you get skittish when you get a storm like had you a couple weeks ago with those two tornadoes and a large swath of wind damage. we don't see it on the map yet, but there is a tornado watch. it goes from albany, new york city, philadelphia, all the way up to almost wilks bury scranton where the storms could be this afternoon expiring 6:00. when something pops i'll be jumping up and down and getting on tv. don't worry. >> not to ask you a self-interested question, when you happen to be in a high-rides build ing from a big urban center and a tornado is coming your way, where's the safest place to be? >> in the sublevel. i live on the tenth floor. first thing i would do, get in the elevator. wrong thing. you should go down the stairs. all the way down to the basement where there aren't windows. don't stand there on the 15th floor looking out going, hey. that's where the winds -- higher you go, stronger the winds.

low are, lower the winds because the tornado isn't as big pup don't want to be in this part of tornado. you want to be in this part of the tornado. need to get down. find neighbors on the first floor. >> very good. chad, we'll check in on the stories as the hour progresses. details are gruesome, charges deadly serious. when we come back, the late ef on they investigation in the u.s. soldiers allegedly killing afghan civilians for fun. ...authentic... ...pure... and also delicious. ♪ like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. because natural is not only good, it also tastes good. nature valley -- 100% natural. 100% delicious. can be unsettling. but what if there were a different story? of one financial company that grew stronger through the crisis.

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we told you a little about this shocking story. americans accused of killing for sport on the front lines of afghanistan. not soldiers, civilians.

drew griffin for the latest. drew? >> ali, more gruesome efds of thrill killings in afghanistan pup said, not by taliban terrorists but u.s. troop ps some of the army interrogation tapes yesterday. american soldiers detailing in their own words cold-blooded killings. soldiers high on opium laced hashish and prescription drugs. u.s. soldiers. now new details in my investigation. >> reporter: in the tapes obtained by cnn the soldiers accused in their own words are not denying anything, but trying to explain how highly trained soldiers could become a band of killers. >> and so we identified a guy, and gibbs -- gibbs makes a comment like, hey, do you guys want to wax this guy or what? and you know, he'd set it up so we could grab the dude. >> corporal jeremy morlock accused of killing three afghan men, the third a setup he says

by his platoon leader staff sergeant calvin gibbs. >> what did he do? explain everything. >> we went to the compound. gibbs walked him out and sat him in place. >> was he fully cooperating? >> yes. >> was he armed? >> no. not that we were aware of. >> where did he stand him? next to a wall? >> yeah. kind of flects to a wall, where gibbs could get, like, behind cover after the grenade went off and then had him placed in the [ bleep ] off over here and this guy and -- you know -- he pulled out one of his grenades, american grenade. you know, popped it. throws the grenade and then tells me and [ bleep ]. all right, dude. you know, wax this guy. >> reporter: he goes on to kill more civilians picked out, stood up, shot and then blown up way grenade. >> did you see him present any

weapons or was he aggressive at you at all? did he -- >> no. not at all. >> okay. >> he wasn't a threat. >> reporter: michael waddington is corporal jeremy morlock's civilian attorney. >> i want you to tell me that this didn't happen. that this isn't true. can you? >> that three people were not killed? >> reporter: that members of the u.s. military didn't go out and three afghan civilians were killed for sport. >> you have the -- you have the, from what i understand, the case file. you know what the witnesses in that file say, and what they say in their videos, but -- that's what it sounds like. >> reporter: to defend his client, mike waddington will try

to prove corporal morlock already injured in two separate ied attacks was tough suffering from brain damp and instead of treating him, waddington says the army drugged him. >> your defense is that your client was mentally incapacitated, that the army either knew it or should have known it? should not have been put in that position? >> the army knew it because they were prescribing drugs to him to try to treat his symptoms. his symptom ins involved nausea, vomiting, inability to sleep. these are injuries that are common in traumatic brain injury. the army knew he had been blown up in two ied attacks and the army chose rather than treat him, give his weapon back to him and load him up on drugs. >> reporter: the drugs distribute ntd plastic baggies included ambien and am transcript lien, both of which carry fda warnings about producing suicidal thoughts.

the trouble began, morlock says, in november of 2009, when the stryker brag gad got a new staff leader. staff sergeant calvin gibbs. >> when gibbs showed up a the unit he bragged to the young soldiers underneath him including my client about killing innocent people in iraq. >> reporter: staff sergeant gibbs is charged in all three killings. and witnesses stated it was this new commander who orchestrated, coerced and threatened the stryker brigade to both kill afghan civilians and cover up their murders. there is something else. the u.s. army accuses u.s. staff sergeant gibbs of collecting teeth, leg bones and fingers as souvenirs. >> did your client see those fingers? >> she says he did. according to his statement he did see that happen. >> ali, cnn reached out to an attorney for staff sergeant gibbs. calls not returned. we also called 9 pentagon extensionively on this story. he wouldn't off interviews

instead questioned our use of these videotapes which they think is evidence, well it is evidence in this case and said it would be hard to get a fair trial if we aired these tapes. ali? >> drew, sorry about that. getting new information on president carter. the story continues to amaze. that not only do you have the detail you have, but that the attorney is not able to categorically say, this doesn't happen, but he's offering as explanation both the influence of the -- superior officer and the combination ever these drugs being used. is that likely to hold up? >> reporter: well, we'll see. right now jarm jeremy morlock, the person featured in the story, the corporal from alaska, is going through an article 32 hearing determining if there's evidence to hold him over for a court-martial a trial likely to take place. you're right. the defense is going to be some kind of a defense that says, look, my client was incapacit e

incapacitated. the military knew he had brain damage, were feeding him prescription drugs and they're going to bring in this oversight angle. this is the defense now. how could this group, if it's all true, ali, how could this group of soldiers be smoking hash openly at a base in afghanistan and committing these killings without even higher ups knowing? without even supervisors of the supervisor knowing? likely to come out in the defense of this trial. no dispute about what happened. three afghan civilian men killed, unarmed and not a threat. >> drew, thanks very much. good to see you, as always. have a good afternoon. drew griffin in new york. bringing up to speed on the latest with jimmy cart e. he was on a plane to cleveland, ohio. he complained of being sick, was take ton metro health hospital. the arrival at the hospital you see there. ambulance under guard. this statement from the carter center. while on a flight to cleveland former u.s. president jimmy

carter developed an upset stomach and taken to the hospital for observation. he'd resting comfortably and is expected to resume this book tour this week. allan chernoff has been talking to somebody at joseph beth booksellers at the legacy village shopping center in lindhurst, ohio a suburb east of cleveland where the book sign was supposed to take place from 1:00 to 2:00 this arn. what allan has is that there are about 400 people still waiting for president carter at the store. some waiting since 19:15 a.m. scheduled to appear from 1:00 to 2:00, his staff changed it to noon. scheduled to be at the tour to signed and promote his book "white house diary" lots of secret service there. no official announcement president carter isn't coming. we can be fairly certain. he seems to be okay, nothing life threatening but i don't think he's doing a book signing today. however, that said, he is robust a few days short of his 86th

birthday and is remarkably an energetic man and somebody else we know very energetic just spoke to him a few days ago on september 20th. our own larry king interviewed president jimmy carter. larry's on the phone with me right now. you've interviewed jimmy carter many times. he keeps a very vigorous schedule. >> yeah, he does, for a man 86 years old. it's a rather incredible schedule. he keeps in good shape. he walks every day. apparently an upset stomach. you know, i never heard of someone going to the hospital with an upset stomach. i guess if you're a former president, they take doubly care, as they should. my guess is that if they're announcing he'll resume this book tour, this is probably just a passing incident. when i was with him last week, he looked super. he looked, as you see there right on the screen. this was probably some time ago. look how robust he is. i mean, he's -- he's a special guy, whatever you think of his

politics. he's a special guy. >> he's busy. just came back from north korea. what were you talking to him about in terms of what he's been up to? he keeps quite a schedule. out in north korea. he keeps very fit. like you, he's very trim. he seemed very energetic when you talked to hi. >> he sure did, and his peace center is involved with something all the time. going to elections, whenever there's an election, whenever called upon to free a prisoner, he goes to do that. so i hope this is nothing more than what my 11-year-old had yesterday, and upset stomach. have you ever had one of those? >> absolutely. and i guess you're right. he's a president and they take it all very seriously. i hope that's all it is. >> i hope it's a pepto bismol incident. >> very good. we hope so, too. larry, thanks for calling in. i know you've been the most recent of us, of the team at cnn to have talked to him. always good to talk to you as well, larry. thanks very much. all right. we will keep you posted, by the

way, on anything we hear about jimmy carter. we'll take a break. back with lots nor when we come back. ck your email messages ♪ ♪ check the money in the bank ♪ check the gas in the tank ♪ check the flava from your shirt ♪ ♪ make sure your pits don't stank ♪ ♪ check the new hairdo, check the mic one two ♪ ♪ 'cause i'm about to drop some knowledge right on top of you ♪ ♪ you check a lot of things already why not add one more ♪ ♪ that can help your situation for sure ♪ ♪ check your credit score ♪ free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ free-credit-score ♪ you won't regret it at all! ♪ check the legal y'all. >>offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage.®

this week on cnn, talking phoo with the series "etocracy: mind, body and wallet" worrying about low calorie this and that food. food should be fun, i say. thinking is proving you can eat good food, healthy food and have a great experience. an underground supper club. haven't figured out what's underground about it. i'll find out in a minute. and a speak easy committed to using local sustainable food. the founder with us from atlanta goes by the name lady rogue. i want to -- i just want to talk to something named lady rogue. ms. rogue, first of all what do you mean by an underground -- what do you call it? underground supper club and speak easy? >> basically we don't follow a lot of rules. we don't have restaurant inspection certificates and we kind of do things on the d.l. makes sense, underground. >> not illegal or anything like that. tell me about this whole move towards local food?

i'm yet to understand. i get it, sort of. but it's not necessarily cheaper, and while we have all sorts of instances of buying food that has got e. coli or salmonella, actually most of the food that gets to us doesn't tend to make us sick. what's the difference? why did i need to worry about buying local food? >> i don't think local food? >> i don't think you need to worry about it, you need to enjoy it. i brought some eggs from a generic grocery store. they may have salmonella in them, they're all genetically identical and similar and that's kind of frightening. i don't like to worry about that. i like to worry about what i do know which is these eggs that my friend rebecca grew in her backyard, they are all awesome and genetically different and they're very delicious. >> those come from different chickens? >> yeah. they're different breeds of chickens is why they're different sizes and colors. >> honestly what do you know more about the egg that say come

from your friend than the ones that come from the store? >> because i know what she feeds them. i know how she raises them. i know how the chickens react. i know they get sunshine, they're happy and actually get hugs. >> they get hugs. >> yeah. >> and do we -- how does it compare generally speaking in terms of price when you buy locally and you buy from somebody who's a smaller farmer who treats their chickens well and hugs them versus buying them from the store? >> that's a really good question. it is inevitably going to be cheaper to get something that's industrial produced, but you're getting what you pay for. and these eggs over here have four times the amount of vitamin d that an industrial-produced eggs have. so for someone with a vitamin d deficiency, like myself, it's worth of price. >> now what is it that rogue apron does that someone might want to emulate? what is it you guys do? >> so we do monthly dinners and we do them in secret rotating locations and they're all based around a theme. one of my favorite ones to talk about is the soup line dinner.

when the dow crashed, everyone had to get in line with an empty bowl and stand in line to get some soup and get it full so this is the sort of dinners we do. we work with local producers, home brewers and create dinner experiences. >> and you have fun doing it. >> i do. >> because that's what you and i share. i'm not the world's healthiest eater but you and i both eat food. >> yeah. i do for sure. >> lady rogue, good to meet you. that you for being with us. >> thanks. our special series continues online just go to cnn.com/eatocracy. check on the at 5:00 pod cast and you can find out what i like to eat. a little different than what lady rogue likes to eat. what does president obama think about bob dylan? what's on his ipod? all of that is coming up in our cnn equals politics update next. . "10 airbags... daytime running lamps... "onstar automatic crash response.

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time for our cnn equals politics update. political editor mark preston at the cnn politics.com desk in washington. mark, what is crossing the ticker right now? >> reporter: as you can see i'm surrounded by jill, allen, alling for the hot political stories of the day. just an hour ago president obama addressed the issue of why is he a christian. of course this is a story line that keeps coming up over and over again, including a recently released poll that one in five americans thinks that he was a muslim. but he was asked this at an event in albuquerque, new mexico, he said he was a christian by choice was his response. he said i came to my christian

faith later in life because of the preseptembers of jesus christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that i would like to leave, such as being my brothers and sisters keeper, treating others as they would treat me. you can see that video shortly on cnn.com as well as see the story. some very interesting things being said out there in albuquerque. you can file this one away in interesting but not really useful information category. president obama did an interview with "rolling stone." they asked him what do you have on your ipod? he said he has about 2,000 songs. he listens to the likes of stevie wonder, miles davis, nas, little wayne and of course bob dylan. he said that his musical influences is his two daughters and reggie love, who is his top travel aide, so to speak. put this in the category of simply very cool. in the "rolling stone" interview

he was asked about bob dylan. bob dylan performed at the white house earlier this year. he said that bob dylan didn't even show up to rehearse. bob dylan didn't even want to get his picture taken with the president. when the time came for him to perform, bob dylan went on stage, performed the song "the times are a changing" finished, walked offstage, shook the president's hand, tipped his hat and walked out of the white house. that was it. no conversation, no small talk. when asked what did you think about that? he said how else would you want bob dylan. i tell you what, a very, very cool moment i think for the president. >> i think that song list sounds like it was designed for -- it sounds like a cool song list that you tell somebody you have and they think, wow, that's pretty varied and eclectic. >> hey, i listen to everything. music now and music from the '60s. of course i'm stuck in the '60s, i don't know where you are. >> pie the way, why is he a christian is a very different question than the is he a christian that continues to be

an issue. i feel sorry for you having to cover that ongoing, ridiculous discussion, but it's remarkable that it continues to exist out there. >> and it will continue to exist, no doubt. >> mark, good to see you. mark preston. your next cnn equals politics update is just an hour away. we'll take a quick break and i'll be back in just a moment. for those of us who have lactose intolerance, let's raise a glass to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk.

a new rundown for a new hour. just this week president obama said we need more charter schools and put taxpayer money where his mouth is. we'll take a closer look at charter schools, whether we need more of them, whether we can keep them from clashing with the broader public education system from which charter schools take

money. plus imagine flooding a perfectly good home on purpose. we'll take you to a place where they do just that. you might learn something that could one day save your home. if you want to talk about bouncing back from a flood, check out the grand ole opry house. the water is gone, the music is back. we're marking the occasion wi. a war aimed at toppling the taliban regime and preventing the taliban from posing a future threat, which it has not. at the moment almost 120,000 highly trained troops from 47 nations are fighting and dying to keep the taliban at bay with no end in sight. only goals for potential drawdowns of troops. look at the map. a patch work of places controlled by various groups. now we get word in kabul of a high peace council assembled by the afghan government, assembled apparently with the blessing of

the united states. village elders, former war lords, 70 afghans in all, ten of them are women called to begin serious substantive dialogue with the armed opposition. that, by the way, is the taliban. no less than the senior u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus, is on the record saying high level contacts are already well under way but afghan leaders insist the process is at best in its infancy. what does this mean, negotiating with the enemy? negotiating quite possibly with the worst enemy you've ever had? ivan watson is following these developments and more in the afghan capital. ivan, this is a substantially more complicated thing than it would appear from the outside. from the outside it appears that this is sleeping with the enemy. tell us more about this council and the state of the negotiations. >> reporter: that's right. well, as you mentioned, general david petraeus, the u.s. military commander here, ali, saying that the way you end insurgencies and this is in

comments to "the new york times" is to negotiate. he said, quote, there are very high-level taliban leaders who have sought to reach out to the highest levels of the afghan government. well, we asked the spokesman for the afghan president whether or not this was taking place. take a listen to how he responded to that question. >> there is substantive negotiations or substantive discussions or dialogue with the armed opposition, and we hope that by -- after establishment of the peace council which was established today we will enter into a serious substantive dialogue with the armed opposition. >> reporter: now, it's really important to know here, ali, the afghan government has been trying to convince taliban leaders to give up their fight against the government and against nato forces since 2005. they have had something called a reconciliation department that

has largely failed in convincing militants to put down their weapons. this is an attempt to reboot that process, but it's already coming under criticism. a prominent human rights group saying how come some of the 68 people named to this, quote up quote, high peace council should some very infamous war lords from the days of afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. people accused of all sorts of war crimes and atrocities. how come they would be included in this high peace council. ali. >> ivan, now, hamid karzai, let's talk about the frustration that he apparently is feeling. many after talibghans think he' responsible in the corruption that might be driving some people to support a deal with the taliban, but karzai himself appears very frustrated by it. >> reporter: yeah. we saw a very emotional outpouring taking place today. what was supposed to be a celebratory gathering, afghans

coming together to celebrate international literacy day and they're on stage in front of boy scouts and girl scouts, in front of teachers and foreign ambassadors, the afghan president lamented that there's some ten million afghans currently illiterate and very clearly worried about the direction he is going in and the country is going in. listen to him express those fears to the audience. >> translator: i have pain in my heart. please understand me. i'm afraid, my countrymen, please understand me. i'm afraid my son, my own son would become a refugee run day. please, i don't want my son and your son to be a foreign citizen.

i want him to grow up here, and i want him to go to school here. i want him to be taught by an afghan teacher. >> reporter: now, ali, the afghan president, his credibility really is at an all-time low here in afghanistan in large part because of last year's presidential elections, which were widely viewed as flawed and a lot of fraud in favor of reelecting president karzai. but the interesting thing is i saw men wiping tears from their eyes in the crowd there. after speaking to some afghans at dinner, we were sitting on the floor eating rice, some of them told me, listen, i do not support this man but he expressed my fears about the direction that this country is currently going in. ali. >> ivan, thanks very much for that report. ivan watson in kabul, afghanistan. obviously a story we will continue to follow very closely, the talk that there might be peace talks developing between

the u.s.-supported afghan government and the taliban. an ugly moment in arizona when a protester tried to get in senator john mccain's face. she ended up on the ground and that is today's sound effect. >> john, john mccain has to go. johnny. you gotta go. i will! >> get up. >> john mccain has got to go. john mccain. this is how peace activists get treated, and the war monger, john mccain, gets to walk out. >> this happened as mccain was leaving a televised debate against his democratic challenger sunday night. maybe you noticed the woman's t-shirt says "do i look undocumented? " and that's a reference to arizona's controversial immigration law. some people say they are the answer to america's education

problems. others say they're only making things worse. we're talking a closer look at charter schools. "chalk talk" coming up next. before rogaine, my solution to the problem was to go ahead and wear hats. i was always the hat guy. i can't even tell you how much it's changed my life. [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. no more hats. [ male announcer ] stop losing. start gaining.

in today's "chalk talk" charter schools, are they the solution to fixing our schools or are they just another problem. there's been a lot of debate about boosting the number of charter schools. president obama mentioned just yesterday that education reform calls for more charter schools and he's backing that up with money. the department of education just awarded $3.5 million in charter school leadership grants. before we get into that, let's talk about what charter schools are.

they were created in the 1990s, designed to be the happy medium between private and public schools. they're funded with public money but the difference is a private group, even a for-profit company can apply and get approval for a charter to run their own school. charter schools do not have to follow some of the same rules and regulations that public schools have to. in exchange for that freedom, charter schools are expected to achieve specific results within a certain period of time, typically three to five years, or their charters can be revoked. right now there are at least a million students enrolled in 3500 charter schools nationwide. joining me now is frank san feliz, he works for the center for education innovation and public education association, which won a grant from the department of education yesterday. his group also received two grants from the teacher incentive fund last week. frank, good to see you. thank you for being with us. >> pleasure being here. >> all right, you heard my description of charter schools. roughly right? >> yes. >> there's a tension between

charter schools and the traditional public school system because as they work, money is redirected from the traditional public school system so what you've got is some schools that do seem to be working better and less emphasis than going to more traditional public schools. so in my mind unless everybody is in the charter school system, we've now created a two-tier public school system. >> well, i don't know if i actually agree with that. it's unfortunate that there is this tension and i understand it is a financial matter. but what charter schools provide, charter schools provide parents with choice, simply choice. now a parent has a choice of either sending their child to a traditional public school or a charter school, which is also a public school. and i think that is healthy for the system as a whole. over time i hope we can overcome the tension between the parts of the two systems and work together. >> when you say choice, how do kids get into the charter school

system. >> assuming that a charter open, a parent would come and fill out an application indicating their interest in enrolling their child. unfortunately, there are many more applicants for fewer and fewer seats in charter schools. consequently, we have a lottery. and the lottery process is fair, but the process itself, when you watch what happens at an actual lottery, when families are not selected, they feel like they lost. and they're not happy. and in many cases, they're sad and crying and so forth. and that's really an indication that somehow or other the system is broke. >> so what's the end goal? because the end goal can't be to have too few seats in charter schools where all these people are unhappy. the end goal theoretically should be that all public schools are employing some of the methodology that works in charter schools. what do we know works, first of all, in charter schools? because not everything has been proven to work. so what generally is better about them than traditional

public schools? >> well, you know, first let me say that charter schools have problems. many have the same problem that say traditional public schools have. however, in working with charter schools over a number of years, i find that many, with respect to the leadership and the staff that works there, they seem to internalize the mission of the charter school. charter schools are typically distinct from one another. they represent a community. in many cases they are very, very close to the community. in new york city, if you noticed recently, we've had a number of charter schools that are secular but related to faith-based organizations. protecting, you know, the first amendment issues and so forth. so they clearly represent the community. i don't know if that's the case in many of the traditional public schools. and i'm not saying that they don't, but what i can say is that there is a real emphasis on

the community that is being served. now, in many charter schools you're going to find longer school days and longer school years. and i applaud president obama's recommendation yesterday, because i'm a firm believer in the fact that the school year should be extended. and perhaps the school day should be extended. but that alone is not going to resolve the issue. if we're doing things poorly, we don't want to do it longer, so we want to make sure that there's reform in the system itself. so a combination of reforming practice and at the same time extending the school year and the school day, and i believe that's what many charter schools have done, will result in better outcomes for students. >> it's still, though, a bunch of different projects, right? >> absolutely. >> there's nobody who said here are the best practices at charter schools so now let's try and implement those across the board. >> we're beginning to accumulate best practices. and i think that goes for not only charters but for the

traditional educational community, so that we know when there is a better use of information of data, and when data helps to influence instructional decisions as well as administrative decisions, there seems to be an uptick in the outcomes for students. >> okay. great discussion. we can have this forever because we enjoy talking about it on this show so i hope you'll come back and talk a little more. i'd like to talk about the data and the metrics and what those best practices can be but we'll leave that for another time. frank, great to see you. frank, the co-director for partnerships in innovation and compensation for charter schools. from the rooftop to the tabletop. we're introducing you to a chef who gets his vegetables from the roof of this restaurant and puts it right on your table, no middle man needed. ♪ airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. and make nonstop travel possible to more places.

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this week on cnn we're focusing on food. we're taking a cross-country food journey with reporting teams all across the country and hoping to get fresh answers about how our food is grown, how the choices we make impact our health, our state of mind, our budgets and the pure joy of eating. today we want to introduce you to a chef who's using his rooftop garden to feed his tabletop restaurant. here's richard roth. >> reporter: how many times a day do you have to do this? >> at least a couple. >> reporter: really? i walked up six flights of stairs with new york chef john mooney to see what's given root to his new restaurant, bell, book and candle. >> here we are. >> reporter: it's a rooftop farm where he will grow almost all the produce used at his 80-seat restaurant below. >> what are you growing up here?

give me a list. >> we have basil here, tomato, lettuce, eggplant, romaine lettuce. >> reporter: he plucks the food from vertical towers that sore with the skyline. >> those are all the roots attached, stays living the whole time. we harvest early in the morning. the vegetables are the strong's. >> reporter: mooney doesn't have to worry about getting his hands dirty because there is no dirt. nutrient-riff water has replaced soil. >> it is the vertical tower that floods it with oxygen, nutrients and sun. it gives rapid growth. so the benefit of growing vertically is not only space management but the way it's set up helps the vegetables to grow quicker and get everything they need easily. >> reporter: and how does it make it to the basement kitchen? >> the pulley system goes out over the back and is lowered right to the back door. >> reporter: is this all worth it? why not open a regular restaurant? >> actually it is all worth it.

we can control everything. we actually touch everything every day and care for it, harvest it. one of the benefits of harvesting itself for tomatoes, for example, they'll never see a refrigerator. so they're not going to be gassed, they're not going to be treated in any way for transport. i just pluck them from right here straight from the vine. it makes a difference. >> reporter: mooney says he can grow food ten months out of the year and will preserve food before the coldest winter months set in. >> there's a heating element inside that heats the solution to 68 degrees, prevent frost from affecting it at all. >> reporter: he says that this farming method will branch out beyond the rooftop. >> i believe especially in an urban setting that this is the wave of the future, for home or for commercial use. in a home setting you can supplement your family's diet caring for the things and growing nutritious foods right in your home. >> fresh leaves just picked off the tree. >> reporter: for now the taste of the future is at mooney's

roof to table restaurant. richard roth, cnn, new york. >> and our special series eatocracy, mind, body and wallet continues online. let me give you a check of our top stories starting with some breaking news. former president jimmy carter was rushed for a hospital in cleveland this morning with an upset stomach. he became ill during a flight into the city. the carter center says he's resting comfortably and is expected to resume his book tour later this week. carter turns 86 this friday. in austin, texas, police say a gunman with an ak-47 fired shots on the university of texas campus today, before killing himself. he killed no one else. it happened inside a library. s.w.a.t. teams and armored vehicles surrounded the campus which was put on lockdown for a time in case there was a second gunman. an all clear was given a short time ago. no word on the suspect's identity or any motive. u.s. home prices have been rising for five straight months but the rate of growth has slowed according to an industry report out today. the 20-city home price index

shows july's monthly increase was 0.6%. prices are up 3.2% compared to a year ago. that's a whole lot better than inflation. we've seen floods destroy people's homes and memories with them. we'll show you how you flood a house and what you learn from it. you've got to see this coming up. ocid most calcium supplemts...

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okay. we've got some weather going on. let's bring in chad and he can tell us about what is going on in this country and elsewhere. got some serious problems in mexico as well. chad? >> a problem with nicole,

tropical storm nicole, that hasn't even been named yet. but it's south of cuba around grand cayman and it's going to be in florida by tomorrow night. very quick mover. tropical storm warnings already posted for the keys, for south dade into ft. lauderdale and west palm. it will eventually move out into the ocean and maybe make a run at north carolina. a storm, tropical storm, not a hurricane, but tropical storms can make flooding. what do you think your house would look like if it was flooded one time? i went to a house in tampa that's been flooded 15. here's the story. >> reporter: so we come to a non-descript warehouse outside of tampa, straight out of a novel, where there's a building inside of a building and we're going to flood it. all right, chris, describe this house. >> well, you've got an 1800 square foot, two bedroom, one bathhouse and it's built entirely to code. you've got real drywall, you've got real wood casing, you've got

real hardwood floors. >> reporter: i'm here with chris hulsey. he's with the school that trains stanley steamer carpet cleaner to deal with floods. this house could be yours and we'll see what happens. >> reporter: all right, i guess we're ready. we've got our boots. show us what happens here. we've got a big water switch on the wall here. i don't have this on my house. go, do it. >> we're going to open it. let's flood this baby. >> reporter: well, the water is coming out. the first thing i notice, it's getting humid in here, which would happen if water was coming in from the outside. what are some of the things you can do quickly if you know water is coming in and you have an hour to get out? you can take your drapes, get them off the ground. it could save you a couple of hundred bucks by getting them off the ground and shoving them up here. something else you don't even think about, if you have furniture and you have legs, especially wooden legs, get something under the leg and get it off the ground.

all right, this house now fully getting wet. what we should have done here earlier, didn't see this, but there's a fuse box right there. the breaker panel. before the water started coming in, we should have had the power off and wouldn't be risking electrocution. don't forget to sandbag those doors. it helps keep the water outside. obviously water is still coming in but you try to get rid of it as fast as you can of the it might stop a little bit of extra damage. the problem is and the big story is it's not the water you can see that hurts your house, it's the water you can't see. that's under your rug. you're not going to get that out with a shop vac. but the floods keep coming and it's time to let them wait and fill up this house. all right, the flood is over, you're fairly overwhelmed. the house is trashed and you realize you need to get this water out of the house before things start to grow. it's time to bring in the pros. flooding could happen to any of us, so keep these tips in mind.

>> you think you can do it yourself, but believe it or not that is stanley steemer university. that house has been flooded 15 times. it still looks fine because they did who to do to get the water out. they have even saved the drywall all the times by getting these big, giant dehumidifiers the size of refrigerators to get that water and humidity and all that stuff out of your house. >> what -- i know you know a lot about flooding and rain and weather. what did you not know? is there anything that surprised you there? >> there are three different classifications of floods. 1, 2, 3 or a, b, c. an easy or fresh water flood means your sink overflowed, all that water as clean. a 2 flood is maybe some river water or outside water came in. there are things in that water. 3, when you have bacteria from sewers that get into your carpet and get into your drywall, then you're in a completely different cleanup mode because you have to stay clean. all of a sudden your house is a

hazardous place and you want to be covered in gloves and don't get your hands anywhere near your face because there's a lot of stuff that could get you sick. >> good advice. chad, good to see you, my friend, thanks very much. i'll see you tomorrow in atlanta. if you're a long-time powerful mayor of moscow, you better watch your step and your back. the mayor has been booted out of office. the messy details and what it says about russia's president, powerful prime minister and the country. bold. daring. capable of moving your soul. ♪ and that's even before you drop your foot on the pedal. ♪ the new 2011 cts coupe from cadillac. the new standard of the world.

it's time now for globe trekking. a show of power from medvedev. he fired the long-time mayor of moscow. the two had been feuding for some time. another key player, vladimir

putin. joining us is jill dougherty. jill, what does this mean? the curiosity for me here is we talk about all these countries that are growing really fast with great economies. russia is the r in bricks when we talk about brazil, russia, india and china. what's going on when the mayor gets ousted by the head haunonc in the country? >> reporter: it doesn't get any bigger than this in terms of russian politics. the mayor was like mayor richard daley of chicago on steroid. this is a guy who had enormous power, economic power, political power. he was a real king maker. and so when you have this clash of titans, criticizing medvedev, the president, for being basically a weakling. there was a case they wanted to build a big highway between moscow and st. petersburg. the environmentalists said it's

a bad idea. in the old days, the mayor said let's build it, forget about them. you had medvedev saying no, let's put it on hold, maybe we ought to think about this. so you had the mayor of moscow saying the president is weak and it would be better when we had putin. let's go back to putin. you couldn't have that if dmitry medvedev as president of russia was going to survive and be influential. it was really a showdown and he had to win it. there was no guarantee that he would, but he did. so now i think you'd have to say it's score a big point for dmitry medvedev who could run in 2012 for president again. also you had president -- i should say prime minister putin tacetally saying, all right, fire the mayor. so the tandem continues, put

putin-medvedev. >> any effect with the u.s. in terms of relations between these two countries? obviously it doesn't seem like the kind of thing the u.s. would be too fond of. >> reporter: no, but they all have international implications. and i think medvedev because he has been part of this reset button with the united states, if something supports him and strengthens him, that would be good for the relationship. at that point that's about what you can say. but i'll tell you, ali, there's a lot going on politically behind the scenes and in front of the scenes in moscow right now. >> important for people to know because this is thought of as one of the world's great emerging economies. it's already an economic and military power, but it's definitely thought of as one of these countries that's going to lead us out of the recession that we're in. so when things like this happen, it's worth some pause and to look at it. jill, good to see you as always. thanks very much. what do you do when a symbol of your city literally goes underwater? it happened to the famous grand

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mission possible now. back in may record floods filled nashville, including the famous grand ole opry house that's been hosting country music's best since 1925. okay, take a look. on the right side of your screen you'll see what the floods did to the place. water rose a few feet above the historic stage. they have been working on repairs for about five months now. look at that, the whole place was under water. the left side shows how far they have come with this venerable venue. today is the day the grand ole opry house reopens. we've got country music superstar dierks bentley who lives in nashville with his wife and his dogs, one of the guys on the rebuilding project, mark gerald, they're both inside the grand ole opry house. guys, good to see you. it is hard to believe what it looked like five months ago and what it looks like now. what is it it feel like?

>> man, for me it's crazy. i saw the footage. my house sustained water damage too but it didn't strike home until i saw the damage here. yesterday was my first day to come back. today is my first day to meet mark. i can't believe how quickly they turned it around. it wasn't just a little water damage, it was like a boat being sunk. i can't believe they have turned this place around and made it better than it was before, to be honest. >> mark, this would be a mess no matter where it happened, but now you're in a place which is a shrine to country music, and it's that far under water. how did you and your team even start dealing with this? >> well, we started doing -- i've never approached a job site by boat but the first time i approached it was by boat. i got the phone call sunday night of the flood and they said get ready. so we got ready and started mobilizing the tuesday after the flood. of course, we were just like in

shock because in 2004 we did the addition to the opry so we knew what it was. and seeing what it then was and seeing what it is today, it's just such an improvement and a blessing really. >> dierks, tonight, big concert tonight. what a concert it's going to be. you've got trace adkins, keith urban, charlie daniels band, this is going to be a big sort of almost -- it's like a spiritual regeneration of the place. >> yeah, it really is. i've been a member of the opry the last five years and such a fan and of country music in general. i know so much of the history and there's always pictures you look back on and tonight will be one of those moments that people will look back on for years. there's a lot of people in town trying to be on the show tonight because it's going to be one of the most historic opry shows ever. watching them put the circle of wood back in the center of the stage and reopening the opry house. it's a big signal for country music and for nashville to be back on its feet and there's lots of fans across the world that will be excited about tuning in and checking out the

show. >> mark, our guy chad myers was showing us what happens when things flood and what you're supposed to do about it. when you get that kind of water, you're going to get things growing, mold, a lot of -- you could get some structural damage. what was the worst part about it? >> you know, actually -- it's kind of interesting because we were totally removing all the memorabilia from tapes, that were original tapes to a lot of the original photographs and loading up these artifacts into refrigeration trucks and then while that was being done we were surrounding ourselves with people that just had the opry in their heart. it was such a blessing because everybody worked together, you know, from electricians were helping carpenters, carpenters helping electricians. everybody was gaylord and the construction team all worked as one rebuilding this. but it's interesting when the flood happens, you've got to remediate everything after the demolition is complete and we can't build back until we get a clean bill of health. so once that was done obviously we hit the ground running and we

were ready to go. >> guys, congratulations. really, really happy to see this. by the way, dierks, good luck. you're up for album of the year. hope that works out for you. great to see both of you. great to see the grand ole opry house opening up again today and we wish you the best of luck. >> thank you. >> thanks, ali. >> this really is a symbol of triumph. a flood-ravaged city rising up again because of teamwork and a whole lot of faith. more information on dierks and the grand ole opry reopening. go to my blog, cnn.com/ali. coming up after the break, my favorite country music fan, ed henry, right there. he'll be talking about rahm emanuel who's running for mayor of chicago -- all but running for mayor of chicago, let me put it that way. if that happens, who is the next white house chief of staff? ed henry has some ideas and he'll tell us his favorite country music when we come back. has gingko for memory and concentration plus support for bone and breast health. a great addition to my routine.

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this just in i want to tell you about arizona attorney general terry goddard has announced the indictment and arrest of the mayor of nogales, arizona. a gentleman named octavio garcia von vorstal.

he's been charged with bribery, theft, fraught, money laundering. he was arrested at his office at city hall. there were search warrants executed at his home, business and city hall office. his father, also of nogales, has also been indicted and arrested on charges of fraud, theft and money laundering. fbi agents, according to the press release issued by the attorney general's office began investigating him five months ago, determined that he was soliciting nogales business to hire him as a business consultant. at least one business admitted to the fbi that it was paying the mayor to use his official position to obtain business contracts and specifically to obtain new city of nogales contracts circumventing open bidding or proper application processes. so the mayor of nogales, arizona, has been arrested, indicted and arrested. more on that when we get it. let's go to ed henry at the

white house, our senior white house correspondent. he's been telling us for some time the whole world is treating it like it's brand new news, that rahm emanuel is planning on leaving the white house, leaving his job as chief of staff and running for mayor of chicago. old news to ed henry. by the way, you're at the bureau, you're not at the white house? >> reporter: yeah, i'm in our washington bureau today, the president is traveling. we reported last week on this program that rahm emanuel is likely to leave the white house in october at some point and that pete rouse, a top white house aide and really goes far back with this president, he was chief of staff to then senator barack obama, pete rouse also goes back far with tom daschle, he had been chief of staff there so he's very well known, sort of behind the scenes. not really a big public figure, but he's expected to be sort of the interim chief of staff when rahm emanuel leaves. it could happen as early as friday, by the way, because rahm emanuel is really up against

some big deadlines here. he's got november 22nd where you've got to get the signatures to basically get on the ballot. then you've got a february 22nd primary. there are a lot of other democrats looking at this race. and so while, you know, here in washington there's this expectation that rahm emanuel is this giant political figure and maybe this is going to be a slam dunk, this is going to be difficult. and i remember a few weeks back when all of this -- when mayor daley first announced he was going to retire, i think it was the president himself in an interview with abc suggested, look, we'll deal with all of this after the midterm elections. people inside the white house, including the president, were really caught off guard by how rapidly this is going to happen, because if rahm emanuel is going to get serious about this, he's got to get going. >> ed, now you're talking about rouse as a short-term plan. >> reporter: yeah. >> is it clear that that's not the long-term plan? if so, what might the long-term plan be for chief of staff? >> reporter: i've talked to some senior democrats outside the white house who were pretty plugged in who say there's a

chance that pete rouse will end up getting this job in the end, he's that close to the president. he has the president's trust, et cetera. but there are others close to pete rouse who frankly say, look, he doesn't want the limelight and frankly rahm emanuel sort of turned this position into an even bigger one in a way because he came from congress, was not just a rank in file member but was a leader up there, brought a lot of wattage to this position and pete rouse has not been known as somebody who would go on "state of the union" or "john king usa" and deliver the president's message. so the expectation is he'll do this temporarily and then move on. there's an outside chance he'll get it. some other names, tom donilon as well as ron klain, the chief of staff to vice president biden and was a top aide in the clinton white house. then the other two names, john poddesta and leon panetta. people close to them say they don't want any part of this, they're happy where they are,

but the significant is poddesta and panetta both chief of staffs could be very well suited to come and help the obama white house if dealing with a republican congress. a lot depends on what happens in these elections, whether the president has to get somebody to deal with a republican congress or not, depending on what happens in the elections. that's why pete rouse is seen as t the bridge to those elections. >> ed henry, our senior white house correspondent with the stakeout. time for cnn equals politics update. let's check in with dana bash. what's crossing the ticker right now? >> reporter: you know congress is getting ready to get out of dodge, meaning leave the session in order to go home and campaign for the election. before they do, some conservative senators are trying to make sure that nothing gets passed that's controversial without a debate or a reported vote. it's a little known fact before congress leaves they do tend to pass a whole lot of things very

fast by voice fast. senators tom coburn and jim demint and others are saying they want senators to give them a heads-up by tonight on what they want passed. according to coburn, he told me crap gets out of here that nobody knows what's in it and demint said they're trying to make sure they have stuff they can read before people are heading to the airports. very interesting going on there. second, this is another item that is about to be posted on the ticker from our team here on the hill, and that is having to do with michelle obama and poor children getting caught between michelle obama and democrats here on the hill. michelle obama as everybody knows has been pushing a healthy food initiative. she's trying to get healthy food in schools for low income children. that initiative is being stalled. the reason is because house democrats are not happy that the way it is being paid for is by taking at least $2 billion, at least in part, from the food stamp program. so michelle obama, ali, she's

been working the phones, getting a little political trying to call house democrats and say please let this through. at this point it doesn't look like it may get through before the election because of the difference in how to pay for it. last, i've got to ask you. al it, did you watch "dancing with the stars" last night? did you watch bristol palin? >> i didn't. >> reporter: drew didn't watch it either, you didn't watch it. i will fully admit i did watch it. she's pretty good. she's a little stiff but pretty good. this is an item on the ticker not about her but about her mother, the former governor from alaska, sarah palin. there was booing going on. there was a question of whether or not sarah palin, who was in the audience, was being booed, unclear why there was booing going on, who was being booed but the executive producer, conrad green, told the "washington post" that he's not sure why the booing was going on. he didn't think it was for sarah palin. >> people should cut people a break when they're dancing. >> reporter: exactly. a lot of controversy even on a fun show like "dancing with the stars." she was pretty good. >> no controversy on this fun

show. dana, good to see you as always, thank you very much. your next cnn equals politics update just an hour away. chew on this, we're going to look at an acronym that ties in nicely with our eatocracy coverage. u want heartburn pain w or later? [ male announcer ] these heartburn medicines make you choose between hurting now, or later. pepcid® complete doesn't. it starts to neutralize acid in seconds and keeps it under control all day or all night. sometimes you gotta make compromises, man. [ male announcer ] no you don't, man. pepcid® complete works now and works later. big oil and their backers are spending millions to scare us. [ male announcer ] no you don't, man. saying it costs too much to break our dependence on oil. what they're really doing is putting our security at risk. my big brother went to iraq to keep us safe. he ce home in a flag-draped coffin. america lost another hero. big oil wants to talk about costs?

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time for wordplay now. we've got an acronym for you. csa. this ties into our special eatocracy coverage this week, food coverage. csa stands for community-supported agriculture. csa programs directly link local residents and farmers, no middle man. what happens is the residents commit in advance to financially supporting the farmers' operations in return for some of his crop. basically they become shareholders benefiting from bumper crops and suffering just like the farmer. the first csa program here in the u.s. started in 1985 at a farm in western massachusetts. the department of agriculture did a survey in 2007. more than 12,500 farms reported

marketing products through a csa setup. pretty interesting stuff. don't know much about religion? well, a new poll says that's the case with a lot of americans. i'm going to ask some tough questions about this and give you some food for thought in my xyz coming up next. ♪ [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am,

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. time now for the xyz. hardly of a day goes by in this country that religion doesn't make it into the show. the platform is often politics. one example, the question some obama critics keep raising is president obama a christian. his answer is always yes. as far as i'm concerned it's a ridiculous issue and one that needs to be put to rest. a much more relevant issue, americans' knowledge of religion. many if not most consider themselves to be religious or see themselves as having faith

in their brand of religion, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion, theirs and others. so says a new poll by the pew forum. this raises a couple of interesting questions. do or should americans know a lot about the facts of religion? if your answer is yes, then the next question is how do they get this knowledge? learning about religion or religions in this country might not be as easy as it would seem. it is not freely taught in public schools. one question people missed is whether teachers may use the bible as a teaching tool if they focus on the literature of the bible. they can. a lot of you responded on my facebook page, by the way to this discussion. elizabeth writes maybe we should know even less about religion because of wars fought in the name of religion. karen suggests people get educated about religion before joining. and my colleague, christine romans, quotes her discussion with british religion author karen armstrong saying america's emphasis on freedom of religion translates into americans' daily